Plants Add More Greenhouse Gas

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

Those who fear global warming blame any climate changes upon man's activity, including the raising of cattle for food. The digestive system of all ruminants, including cows, produce methane gas as part of the digestive process. Methane is considered one of the greenhouse gases that change the Earth's climate. Some have even suggested ways of limiting the methane produced by cows.

Methane is produced in a chemical reaction that scientists have always believed must take place in the absence of oxygen. That's why they were surprised to find living plants making methane. It should be added that the researchers took great pains to ensure that the methane they were measuring was produced by the plants and trees and not by microbes in the soil. While they are unsure of the chemistry involved, they did find that more methane was produced with higher atmospheric temperatures. This finding explains large methane plumes that have been identified over tropical forests. Based on their findings, they estimate that 20 percent of all atmospheric methane comes from plants and trees. That's about 150 million metric tons a year!

Since God has created the Earth for life, He has built balances into it that can deal with the by-products of life, including methane. We can trust God's promises that man will be here on Earth, planting and reaping, until its history ends.

Prayer:

Father, I praise You for giving us a creation that balances itself so that we might live within it without fear. Amen.

Notes:

Science News, 1/14/06, p. 19, S. Perkins, "Greenhouse Plants"

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